It is a curious fact that the book with one of literature’s most famous opening lines, “Call me Ishmael!”, was not even in print when the author, Herman Melville, died in 1891. It is also a fact that although many people believe that they know the story of Moby Dick, not so many have read the book. This is probably because of the style that Melville adopted, which was very characteristic of the 19th century in that it needed the attention of a good editor. The book has a strange arrangement to its chapters, which are not logical to the story but designed to meet the needs of what was to Melville a greater creative imperative. Although he began the book as a straightforward account of a whaling voyage based upon his own personal experiences, Melville appears to have become influenced by other writers, William Shakespeare and Nathaniel Hawthorne amongst them. In some respect this was a positive development, but in others it leads to the text going off on tangents to explore the history of whaling and a rather ludicrous suggested system of whale classification that was obviously written in ignorance of the scientific system that was then in use amongst naturalists.

Putting aside the divergences that probably added to the eighteen months it took to write the book, what is left is a powerful story about man versus nature. The protagonist, Ishmael, is a newcomer to the industry of whaling, which was at its height when the book was written. Commerce was driving whaling ships and their crews to achieve greater profits for the companies and their shareholders. Ishmael joins the Pequod commanded by Captain Ahab. As whaling is seen as both a hard and dangerous life the whalers take whoever they can, so Ishmael is exposed to a small world encompassed by the timbres of the ship in which men from all around the world are gathered. Race appears irrelevant in many respects amongst the crew. Sailors are judged by their abilities and achieve their status or rank by the exercising of their skills in the pursuit and capture of whales. The Pequod represents a rather unique and probably very rare social instance where white men did not assume a racial superiority over others in the 19th century; a situation created by necessity rather than benevolence.

Captain Ahab raises this story from being a simple reflection of Melville’s own experiences on a whaleship to one of revenge on a huge scale. His obsessive nature drives both the Pequod and the story towards its terrible conclusion, while also giving Melville opportunities to indulge in some impressive monologues that Shakespeare would have been proud to write. Ahab’s thirst for revenge reflects the then dominant notion of Manifest Destiny, a concept used to justify the eradication of the Native Americans and the exploitation of the natural resources on their lands, supposedly offered to the white people by God. The whalers are doing the exact same thing to the sea and the whales that inhabit the oceans. For many readers of an ecological persuasion, the White Whale, Moby Dick, is the embodiment of the natural world fighting back. It is not clear whether Melville intended this, but in many ways that does not matter, it is still both a logical and valid interpretation of the text and the role of the antagonist.

Moby Dick was not a successful book when first published. It was not until the early 20th century that it started to attract attention. Today, the name Moby Dick is synonymous with a monstrous creature battling with humanity. As a book, I think many readers today would find it a struggle to complete, it is one of those old novels that probably should be read as an abridged version with all the chapters dedicated to the history of whaling and such removed as losing them detracts nothing from the main story, although I must admit that finding a reference to my home city of Kingston Upon Hull was rather a proud moment.